[1] Appavu has been described by The Hindu as a regional "heavyweight" of the Indian National Congress (INC) who joined a splinter group, then stood for election as an independent during a period of intra-party troubles, and eventually transferred his allegiance to the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK).
[7] This was the narrowest losing margin in the state[8] and he appealed against the outcome, arguing amongst other things that the Returning Officer had improperly rejected some postal votes.
[9] In 2013, he spoke in court of the need to impose minimum price controls on agricultural produce in order to reduce the alleged incidence of suicide among farmers and to prevent profiteering by middlemen.
He also wanted an improved agricultural insurance scheme to ward against the effects of crop losses that occurred as a consequence of natural events.
[15] There was some controversy in 2009 when there was an attempt to name a bus-stand in Radhapuram after the parents of DMK leader, Karunanidhi, and to erect statues commemorating them.